The Seer's Thirst
by YellowTangerines
Summary: Now who ever said that if the monster speaks once, it couldn't speak again? At least, that was what Rose Lalonde thought on a normal summer day. Homestuck Crossover AU with Kagerou Project, no Sburb, no trolls. /Story 5 of Mekakustuck/
1. Fever

**The Seer's Thirst**

And all at once, the kitchen was lit in a shining blaze.

It was almost surreal, the way the composed Rainbow Falls had become the screaming wreck it was. Cool and elegant glass bottles, broken on the ground. Complacent trees, toppled over one another. And even more secluded and surrounded than it used to be, the house over the cascade of water was now a burning cage. There was no escape. Rose had scoured each and every corner of her home, finding nothing. What was the cause of this? Mom explained it earlier, oddly clear in between her usual inebriated moans. There was a piece of space debris, burning away in a clearing somewhere. Something like that, Rose knew, but it was unecessary information. What was important was where the fire extinguisher was. Why did the phones had to burn so quickly?

The red cylinder must have been misplaced again, by another one of Mom's drunken wanderings. She cursed. Up the stairs it was, to the observatory. Nothing but red-orange skies and dark smoke. Down the stairs again. It stung all over in Rose's eyes and lungs, but she would push on. It would be over when she found the fire extinguisher. It would be over. That was all she had to do, right? Rose turned another corner, forcing her sight open for that round tint of red hiding in the house somewhere. But the smoke. Oh, but the smoke. It pushed her eyelids closed, cut her throat open. Still she would move on.

A single brush of her hand, and suddenly the whole wrist was screaming for cold water.

Make that her whole body. Charred like her mother's, but unlike her mother's, still functional.

Now the smoke and flame had left her on her knees. Stomach. And the fire extinguisher was right there. Rose's mind began to wander, unable to be restrained in a search for a cylindrical object any longer. What day was it today? August 15th, 2013? Did that mean she would end up like her friends and the ESL ones on the internet? A grim hope filled Rose's chest. It was an odd thing, how she could still feel the rush of curiosity go through her. Finally, she closed her eyes.

If anyone alive were around to hear anything, they would have thought they heard a teenage girl mumble "so swallow me," with a dead chuckle in between.


	2. Search

_October 25_ _th_ _, 2013/A page in Rose's new journal_

It's been a long while since I first learned of the Heat Haze.

How many years has it been? Two? Since the day Dave returned after being killed, along with John a year earlier and eight new Chumhandles appeared on our screens, I can't say anything has been quite the same. Now, let me recapitulate what exactly has changed.

I believe I myself have gone through the events required to come back from the dead and receive a power. The constants line up: a surreal, nightmarish dream-like experience, with a feminine voice coming from somewhere. One other person, my mother, accompanying me in the Haze other than myself and the entity said voice belongs to. And a wish. The entity knew well what I wanted, well what I would do if some magical power came into my hands.

I hate to say that it/she is right. I am utilizing my granted wish exactly as I remember her saying. But I have every reason to. After all, why not use what is available to you?

I believe my power allows me direct communication with the 'snakes' – the supernatural beings currently keeping my friends alive – rather than my friends themselves. To my relief, these snakes are not truly intelligent nor are they truly powerful. They seem to have desires of their own, yes, but they cannot override the personality of a host nor even use their own powers without some actually sentient person calling on them. However, on their own they may utilize English words so as to communicate these desires, and take on the tone of voice used by the entity in the Haze.

Now, about my experiences with said power: it is dormant in a stubborn way. While John and Jade have near-intuitive control over their "eye abilities" (as the strangers on Pesterchum call them) and Dave's is still almost always activated, I have a hard time reaching mine. It seems to never come out when I want it to, but does not even do so of its own volition. It just lays dormant within me. So the Heat Haze is capable of making its gifts cutting remarks, then? How cryptic! But nonetheless, it is a satisfying ability. In theory.

~Rose Lalonde

 _November 11_ _th_ _, 2013_

The world of eye abilities is a social one.

For instance, my gift is useless when not surrounded by people who have been revived via Heat Haze. For another, covertCommander, the purple-text girl belonging to the 'Mekakushi Dan', has been advising me on how to properly utilize my power. The rest of her gang has chimed in with advice as well, though they all defer to CC as a leader and an expert on eye abilities. I use the word 'gang' in a fairly literal sense; having deduced that the Mekakushi Dan is based in Japan and having Google Translated the kanji nicely provided to me by fantasyPathway, the merry little band of new friends in my Pesterchum call themselves the Blindfold Gang.

I am now associating myself with juvenile delinquents. Or not? They don't seem to have the menacing air around their speech that one usually associates with gangs. I feel like I now know more about deers, soda and the art of making paper flowers than I used to. But I digress.

This journal entry is also to say that I have experimented with my power, with more often than not Dave as my subject. It is still as fickle as it was months ago. However, when it doesfunction as desired, I learn all that I want to and more. The words of the snake are lucid and well enunciated – as well as a snake can enunciate, anyways. It tells me, using a voice distinct from Dave's, that it wants to return to its "queen" and do her bidding. And for the rare days in which I can properly activate my eye ability (There's a name for it, though I can't be sure it's right. Is it 'Communing Eyes'?) in the proper circumstances, I hear exactly the same things from John and Jade's snakes.

The path of the seeker is ever difficult, however. It seems the process of talking to snakes pains my friends, prompting them to vehemently refuse me whenever I tell them what it is I'm about to do. When my power ends up deactivating itself, I see something in John, Rose and Dave. They open their eyes wide, like trying to escape a bad dream. Would it be safe to assume that it is akin to trying to leave the Heat Haze again?

On another note, I've found research on the Heat Haze beyond what I've done myself. Somebody's investigative journal has been released onto the internet. I don't know who did so, or whether it was with permission, but I'm utilizing it. The journal is unnamed and not under the website of any archeological organization at all, but it seems to be credited to someone who is, according to Google, a professional archeologist. The author? A person named Tateyama Ayaka. It's a detailed account that draws info from both seemingly firsthand data (was anyone in the Mekakushi Dan adopted, by chance?) and local legend, also keeping measuring up to everything I've found myself. I will continue using it as much as I can. I have to know.

~Rose Lalonde

 _Postscript tucked at the end of the journal_

If you call yourself my friend from back when we were naïve children on a chat client, and have come across this journal, I apologize. I really do. But this needs to be done. Look at what's happened to us – as much as the voice in the summer heat called these inhuman eyes "gifts", you know they're not really that. They're curses. And the more I learn, the more I realize we are very likely pawns in somebody's game of chess, perhaps the "queen" your snakes so reverently desire to serve. We're the pieces on the board. At the least, this is keeping us safe. At the most, it could repair our fates. So forgive me, if you read this. The pain is worth it, trust me. Oh, and one more thing: if we are not exploited or killed off for a second time, and you would call your future optimistic:

Spare yourself the effort. The pleasure was all mine.


	3. Scrutiny, part 1

For a plan that stole voices from beloved friends and pushed Rose's already exhausted body into worse burnout, everything was going fine.

"So that's basically how I use my ability!" Jade finished. "I don't teach as well as CC does, but this is what she told me, and it's what I'm telling you! And thanks, Nanna, for helping me demonstrate." Nanna nodded and smiled, leaving the feeling jam room.

"Mm-hm," Rose responded. Maybe years ago watching her friend supernaturally take and return voices would have piqued her interest, but now? The very idea just brought her grief. This was the proof that Jade could no longer go back to just having the life force she was born with. Not that she could, regardless.

Jade put down her victory arms. "Is everything all right, Rose? You don't seem focused today. Rose? Rose?"

"Yes, Jade?"

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, Jade. Really. It's just that, when I said I wanted some 'ability talk', I wasn't thinking about control courses. I was thinking about our snakes."

"Oh…Rose. That is a really touchy subject for me, but if it's weighing you down so much, of course we can talk about snakes!"

"Thank you, Jade. You know, I'm not using hyperbole when I say that really relieves me." Rose relaxed her shoulders, taking a breath of air. That had to be the first relaxed puff she'd taken since she entered the house. Turning her thoughts into sounds now, Rose began to tell Jade everything she had discovered up until her time in this room. She mentioned Ayaka's journal, the scribbles in her own notebook, the little things that the snakes said about their own natures. Her speech was as stoppable as a school lecture: inaccessible, dripping with information and ever so slightly monotone. But unlike school lectures, as Rose spoke a worried frown grew on Jade's face. The more factoids she dropped, the more anxious she seemed to look. It was something of a relief that the speech had to die off, allowing the gardener to put in a word of her own.

"Rose, was that…Was that what you were working on for so long? You haven't been answering me, Dave or John for weeks now. Rose, I'm scared for you! We have all lost our guardians and we've all had a rougher time around people because of our powers, but…You realise we can all talk to each other about this! You don't need to be hiding yourself."

"But Jade, I have been responding to you, haven't I? You know. I talked to you on Pesterchum two days ago."

"That only worried me more! You're beginning to sound more and more distant whenever I contact you. That's what John and Dave are telling me too. But I'm glad now that you told me what you were doing all this time! How about we go get some snacks now? Nanna baked chocolate chip cookies!" Jade pops up from her seat.

"No, Jade. No, I'm sorry. The point of me coming here was…It was to make one final step in my investigation. Jade, I need to speak with your snake, the Snake of Stunning Eyes, one last time. I know it hurts you. I know you don't like it. But I'll only use it for three minutes, and on low intensity. I've been speaking with CC, and I believe I can allow you to still have a voice, albeit one that isn't predominant." Rose broke eye contact. The wave of dread in her stomach had overtaken her head to toe.

"Rose, that's…That still scares me. I didn't like that last time! But if it makes you feel any better, then I'll do it! One last time."

The wave receded. Rose fully relaxed her shoulders, looked into Jade's sharp green eyes. She shut her eyes and once again, plunged her focus into the place where monsters spoke.


	4. Scrutiny, part 2

Maybe everything would turn out well this time.

"Hello, Snake of Stunning Eyes." Rose said. Her tone was low.

It greeted her back. The greeting still held Jade's bright lilt, in a way, but there was a weight to it. The corners of the gardener's eyes, the light in the irises themselves had dimmed. Jade's shoulders had slunk back, like a snake would with its body in case of an attack. The list of questions, prepared that morning in Rose's head, began to slide into her current thoughts and out of her mouth. One by one, like a lineup for the cafeteria.

"You've told me that you want to return to your queen. I assume you favour her?"

Denial.

"I see. I'm under the assumption that there was another entity, capable of hosting the likes of you, in that world you were cast into. Have you any thoughts on her?"

Neutrality.

Rose let a thin smile creep onto her face. This was a pretty good plan. Not that much time had passed; there were minutes still for question.

This was, however, the last stable part of the conversation.

* * *

Ding dong! John prodded the doorbell with his finger. No one answered for a while, making him wish he had brought keys out with him. But nope. Not spying anyone from behind the glass windows nor hearing any footsteps, John thought he would have to pull some movie-worthy heist shenanigans. A rope, maybe. And then climbing skills. That bush would be an obstacle. Would a rope even be necessary, when one had a selection of past selves that could show up any moment?

Guess not. Nanna had pulled the door open while John was in his reverie. Her air of warm cookies and lighthearted pranks flooded through the entrance and lifted the corners of the trickster's smile, but the hardness in her eyes, hard as bad muffins, did otherwise. Seeing that hardness was a stab in the heart. Not that this stab would kill him like the last one 4 years ago, anyways, but it ached all the same. For Nanna to be worried, a lot would have happened. And from the hiss-like echoes from the second floor? A lot had happened. Another stab.

"Nanna, I'm home! What is…what is going on?" John asked.

"John, were you aware Rose came over?" Nanna countered.

"Rose came over?"

"Oh, I suppose you don't. But she came, John, and she's still here! Doing what, you may ask? She's using her power, John. On Jade. And it hasn't ended for the past 2 hours – I'm beginning to think that it isn't healthy for either girls to be doing that." Nanna closed the door behind her grandson. "I sincerely apologise, John. I know so little about those powers of yours, I don't know what I should be doing! It would be wrong to alert the authorities of this. Any ideas in that noggin of yours?"

"Geez, I don't know, Nanna! I guess I could go upstairs and talk to Rose myself, but…how would I avoid going under her power? I am not sure if my hood is enough. Oh, wait! Can you blindfold me, Nanna?" John asked. "Any strip of cloth will be fine. And don't worry about me bumping into things a lot!" With a bucktoothed smile, the trickster handed a towel on the kitchen table to his grandmother. In response, she pulled it around and around John's head, stretched and contrasted from the backdrop that was his dark hair. The world had gone all black in the eyes, but nothing had changed sound-wise. The red cloth had been tucked behind the ears.

Stumbling, John felt his way to the stairs. He took a step, alternating between clutching the handrail and smushing his palm against the white walls. He took more steps, and more, until Nanna's calls of encouragement died away and the hissing grew ever louder in its place. Now, which way was the feeling jam room? Left? Yeah, that was right. Left. John went left, letting the murmurs pull him to his destination. This had to be the feeling jam room, or else it was the bathroom.

Yup. It was the feeling jam room. And in it, were Rose and Jade.

* * *

"Nanna?" A single name, drenched in tears and venom. Gasping for air. This was not the way Rose knew herself, but who cared about that? "Nanna, is that you?"

"No, Rose, it's me, John. I just got home, and I went up here because Nanna told me you were using your power for a very long time!" John. The airiness in his voice, the one that could carry breezes and turn windmills – Rose didn't know how long it was since she last heard humanity. Nanna hadn't come up since those intended 3 minutes had dwindled away. It was fresh. It was the last thing she wouldn't come to ruin, because someone would ruin it for her in time.

The psychoanalyst did not return his smile. It didn't take eyes to see that. "Look, John, I appreciate that you cared to stop by, but I must be left alone. This isn't…this is not…" A thesaurus turned itself in Rose's head, but it gave nothing. "John, listen to me."

"I'm listening."

"We are all going to die. We are going to meet the Mekakushi Dan, and that _snake_ , the Snake of Clearing Eyes, is going to take our lives, one by one. Have you seen yourself, John? You took a hammer and tried to defend yourself, but he stabbed you from behind with a sword. Dave's sword. John, that'sour future."

"Rose, that's…Geez, I am not really ready to believe that!"

"But believe it, John. The snakes don't lie. I need to do something about it. I'm going to find some way to get to Japan. I need to save us. This is going to repair our fate! I need to know more." More venom than tears. More exhaustion than venom. John, having put a hand on Rose's shoulder earlier, lifted it as he felt her tense. He expected Jade to be in agony. He expected right.

"Rose, no! Can't you see? You have gone mad from all this…this…snake research! Rose, I am really sorry to say this, but you have gone off the deep end."

"As is painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain," she chuckled.

"Exactly! Resist the urge to go deeper! Don't take revenge!" Even if John spoke loud enough to alert the entire Washington State, Rose didn't hear it. Her body, arms and legs and eyes, had become as taut as a rubber band. She leaned forwards, until her face was only inches away from that of Jade's. "Rose, no!"

There were tears streaming from the corners of her eyes now. She pushed.

A headache was clawing at her temples. She pushed.

Jade's voice, now hoarse from all the snake had spent using it, made her dizzy. She pushed.

And so on, and so on. The internal plea for even the tiniest droplet of rest was squashed beneath Rose's will. How it screamed, begged like a little child. So then?

It all came crashing down on her, and the world went black.

John slipped off the blindfold, adjusting his eyes to actual sight again. Jade had come out of her stupor. They both looked exhausted just by a glance at one another, but the passed-out psychoanalyst leaning against John surpassed their own tiredness by miles.

"Jade, are you okay?" John asked. "I do not want you to pass out either."

"I think so," Jade answered. There was a dazed look in her eye, a raw pain in her voice that didn't know the outside world nor her body anymore. It was obvious when her feet jerked and she stumbled. But she was quick to adapt. Together, the two black-haired kids lifted their friend and lowered her onto the puppet pile that had become so iconic to the room.

If anyone else were around to hear it, they would have thought they heard a teenage girl mumble "you make a halfhearted attempt to resist the urge", with a dead chuckle throughout. But there wasn't anyone else.

 **End**

* * *

 _AN: This marks the end of the character arcs!  
Fun fact: Rose's story here is the longest out of all of them, with the word count up in the mid three thousands. By contrast, John's story _(Red on a Green Ghost) _was 1625 words counting the endnotes. Nothing less for Rose Lalonde, master of verbosity among her friends, right?  
Anyways, I suppose I should add that Mekakustuck is a much longer series than you already see here. There are even acts and an intermission - though only 2 acts  
and_ _1 intermission at that. This is the second last story of ACT 1 if you were wondering.  
Well, thank you for reading _The Seer's Thirst _and the Mekakustuck series as a whole! Comments and criticism will be much appreciated. ~YellowTangerines_


End file.
